According to Georgia prosecutors, a modern-day slavery network was busted where workers were kidnapped, raped and held in squalid camps.
The crooks raked in more than $200 million by luring in over 100 desperate migrants from Mexico and Central America to the US, a federal indictment says.
In the brutal conditions, workers were forced to handpick onion at gunpoint and paid 20 cents for each bucket. One woman was also kidnapped and then raped repeatedly.
The animals were housed in cramped, squalid living quarters and electric fencing.
In an effort to prevent them fleeing, they reportedly took their passports and other documents.
After a multi-agency, three-year federal investigation known as “Operation Blooming Onion”, two dozen members have been charged with mail fraud and money laundering.
Two of the defendants were described as South Georgia business owner, but most others are recruiters and contractors.
According to the indictment, workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Guatemala were forced into substandard living conditions on business properties like Charles King’s Farm and Property in Waycross.
Gast workers pick Vidalia onions in Lyons, Georgia, (file photo June 2013).
According to the indictment, which is 50 pages long, some of the migrants were allegedly employed at Hilltop Packing Company owned by Stanley McGauley.
According to federal officials, the conspiracy ran across south Georgia and farmers were paid by the conspirators for contract laborers. Many were then sold to members of the Southern Georgia crime ring, including Tattnall and Tattnall. However, illegal activities continued within the Southern and Middle Districts of Georgia as well as the Middle District of Florida and the Southern District of Texas.
There were three main aspects of this alleged human trafficking operation. They used the H-2A visa to illegally bring in people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and the Philippines under the pretense that they were agricultural workers. Then, they exploited and misused the workers to make money. Finally, the proceeds were laundered through large cash purchases, cashier’s checks, and even a casino.
Investigators have given the name of the gang “Patricio TCO” (a transnational crime organization), to Maria Patricio who is a 70 year-old Nicholls resident.
Her charges include filing false petitions in order to obtain H-2A work visas for workers entering the United States. VICE reports Patricio has pleaded no guilty to the charges.
H-2A stipulates that workers’ legal status must be maintained in the employ of the person who sponsored them. They are connected to the sponsor, and can’t simply work for another.
The criminals began to bring in thousands of people starting in 2015 and promising that they would pay them $10-12 per hour plus transportation, housing, and food.
The criminal enterprise would then send dozens of false petitions to the government seeking more than 71,000 laborers for an ‘agricultural employer.’
These visas were issued by the US to “thousands” of foreign citizens.
Georgia ranks second in H-2A worker count, behind Florida.
The indictment states that the victims, which included more than 100, were transported into Georgia as part of the program. According to the indictment they were held in cramped quarters with no sanitation and water and had limited access to food and plumbing.
Unlawful fees were also charged to migrants, while some illegally forcibly did construction work, lawn care and other tasks.
Other workers were also threatened with violence and deportation. The indictment says that they tried to coerce witnesses and workers to give the federal government’materially false information to cover their illegal activities.
Officials from the Federal Government claim that the Slavery Ring extended to southern Georgia, where conspirators were paid by farmers for the provision of contract laborers.
They often were sold to members of the criminal ring of southern Georgia. Atkinson, Bacon, Coffee, Tattnall, Toombs and Ware But the illegal activities extended within the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Georgia; the Middle District of Florida; the Southern District of Texas.
They then allegedly siphoned millions of dollars into casinos and bought land, cars, and other businesses.
A worker harvests onions from a Lyons field, Georgia, (file photo June 2013).
The indictment also states that between September 2018 and November 2019, a member of the crime ring ‘repeatedly raped, kidnapped, and tried to kill Victim 12.’
These offenses were allegedly ‘aided by and abetted’ by two only defendants in the indictment who are business owners: Charles King, owner of Kings Berry Farms and Stanley McGauley owner of Hilltop Packing.
They now face charges of mail fraud and conspiracy to mail fraud, forced labor and conspiracy to force labor, money laundering conspiracy, witness tampering, and mail fraud.
VICE reports the U.S. Attorney’s Office that it might be one of America’s most significant human trafficking or visa fraud investigations.
In November 2019, the feds began an investigation into the gang. Homeland Security Investigations, the Labor Department, the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and FBI.
More than 200 federal agents and law enforcement officers from the United States met in Georgia during the investigation to execute over 20 federal search warrants at the target locations.
Barry Paschal spoke for the US Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Georgia and said that Barry Paschal was a spokesperson. He stated: “Victim’/Witness Services staff and NGO are helping the rescued victims” (approximately 102).
‘In specific circumstances, federal law protects victims of crime from deportation,’ he added, as U.S. Attorney Estes urged other victims of human trafficking to come forward.
“We are aware of approximately 70,000 people who came in below our threshold.” [the H-2A]Estes stated that the program was being used fraudulently at a press conference held on November 22. We were able locate 100 of the actual victims within our district.
David H. Estes (Acting U.S. Assistant for the Southern District of Georgia) speaks during a press conference, November 22, 2021
He said, “The American Dream is an attractive attraction for desperate and destitute people around the world, and where there’s need, there’s greed from those who want to exploit these willing workers for their own absurd profits.”
“Operation Blooming Onion has freed more than 100 people from modern slavery thanks to the outstanding efforts of our law enforcement partners and we will be holding those responsible for their imprisonment.
OCDETF Director Adam W. Cohen stated that Operation Blooming Onion tapped into the collective expertise of several law enforcement agencies and used analytical and coordination support provided by OCDETF’s International Organized Crime Intelligence and Operations Center (“IOC-2”) to identify an international criminal organization involved in visa fraud and human trafficking.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office’s leading role in this multi-agency law enforcement effort positions it to disrupt and destroy the transnational criminal network operations that pose the greatest danger to our communities as well as the Nation’s.
ICE representatives also confirmed that Operation Blooming Onion will be the first investigation to close under its new labor exploitation model. The announcement was made by Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security Secretary, that officials would target ‘exploitative employers’ as well as businesses that violate labor law.